Written by Brian K. Vaughan with art mainly by Tony Harris, Ex Machina is the story of Mitchell Hundred, newly-elected mayor of New York City and one of only two men on Earth with genuine superpowers. Hundred can talk to machines, from televisions to light-switches to the locks on doors. But what really makes Ex Machina tick isn’t tales of superheroics, but the political struggles Hundred faces as an independent mayor in the early 2000s.

The story is amazing, I’d go so far as to say that Brian K. Vaughan (or BKV, as he’s affectionately known by acronym-prone comic fans) is the master of the single issue. Vaughan does more in a single issue of comics than most do in whole arcs. Tony Harris’s art is also amazing, photo-referenced without being creepily life-like.

I’d say give the first collection a try, then see where the story takes you from there. I promise you this: if the first issue doesn’t grab you, nothing will.